Reflecting sign construction



NOV, 14, 1939. c, PERSONS 2,180,156

REFLECTING S IGN CGNSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 26, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet l NOV. 14, 1939. c. A. PERSONS REFLECTING SIGN CONSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 26, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 flnvemm' Charles A. Perso 5 Patented Nov. 14, I939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REFLECTING SIGN CONSTRUCTION Charles A. Persons, Worcester, Mass, assignol' to Persons-Majestic Manufacturing Company,

Worcester, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application August 26, 1938, Serial No. 226,978

9 Claims. (G1. 40-130) The present invention relates to improvements a slightly diifcrent type of reflecting unit or in reflecting signs of the general type shown by autocollimator assembly.

United States Letters Patent to MacDonald et Fig. i, and 8 are views similar to Fig. 3, showal., No. 1,91%,l42, granted June 13, 1933. ing various modifications of my invention.

5 In said MacDonald et al. patent, each indivi- Figs. 7 and 8 respectively are vertical and hori- 5 dual autocollimator or reflector button has a zontal sectional views illustrating afurther modicylindrical sheet metal casing that provides a flcation of my invention. protective closure for the reflecting surface and Like reference characters refer to like parts in a portion of the lens; a portion of this casing, inthe different figures.

l0 wardly of an annual flange or shoulder thereon, The sign shown in Figs. 1 and 2 employs in 10 has pressed or otherwise formed therein an eX- conventional manner a back plate A and a front ternal screwthread, said threaded portion being plate B, the latter being provided with buttonadapted to pass through one of a series of buttonreceiving apertures arranged to delineate the receiving apertures formed in the front plate or desired word or symbol. After the reflector panel of the sign, and arranged in the usual units have been assembled in and secured, acl5 manner to delineate the desired warning, signal, cording to my invention, to said apertured front word, letter, or other symbol. The flange on said plate B, the two plates A and B are united in any casing is of larger diameter than said opening, suitable manner, so as to exclude any access to and seats against the outer surface of the front the space C between said plates wherein are displate or panel of the sign; the button is positioned posed the inner threaded portions of the several 20 by screwing onto the inner threaded portion of reflector buttons. For preventing in a completed saidcasing an internally threaded cup member, sign any unauthorized separation of the plates A whose rim engages the inner surface of the plate and B, I may employ, as shown, clamping means or panel around said opening in opposition to D that only can be manipulated by a special said flanges engagement of the outer surface tool, or if desired, a padlock may be used to hold around said opening. the plates together.

Heretofore, this method of mounting and hold- In the accompanying drawings, I have illusing reflector buttons in a sign has not proved trated my invention in connection with two difpractical; in certain instances, where vibrations, ferent types of button reflectors or autocollimatdue to traffic, have been heavy and frequent, ing devices, one type being that shown by Figs; 30 the screw-thread engagement between button 2, 4 and 5, wherein the lens itself on its convex casing and cup has loosened up, allowing the rear face provides the reflecting surface, and the buttons to shift or tip into positions wherein their other type being that shown by Figs. 3 and 6, light-reflecting properties are materially reduced; wherein the lens is separated from the reflecting in many other instances, with buttons so mounted, surface by an air space. malicious persons and pilferers, by manipulating In each of the reflector units shown by Figs. 2, them from the front of the sign, have been able 4 and 5, I employ a button lens 5 having convex to unscrew them from their cups and to remove front and rear faces 2 and respectively. Said them bodily from the sign. rear face 3 receives a suitable opaque coating 4 The primary object of the present invention which serves in a manner well known as an is to overcome, in reflecting button mountings of effective reflector of light rays passing through this character, the difficulties and disadvantages the lens, and this dispenses with the necessity of above mentioned; other and further objects and using in the unit a reflector element separate from advantages of the invention will be made apparthe lens itself. In each of the units of Figs. 3 out in the following detailed description thereand ii, I have shown a button lens la 0r lb, with ofreference being had in this connection to the which associated a separate reflecting element accompanying drawings, wherein t, the latter being of shallow cup form, with its Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a sign or the like, concave surface suitably plated and burnished, equipped with reflector button mountings acand held in spaced relation to the convex inner ording to my invention. surface of lens by engagement of its rim with a 50 Fig. 2 is a fragmentary large scale View, partly flanged shoulder 5 of said lens. In both types in section and partly in elevation, of the sign of units, the protective housings or encasing shown'in Fig. l, means for the lens and the reflecting surfaces Fig. 3 is a View, partly in section and partly in have substantially the same characteristics, as elevation, illustrating my invention as applied to follows- I provide for each of the units of Figs. 2, 4 and 5, a suitable housing in the form, preferably, of a cup-shaped sheet-metal stamping I whose cylindrical portion, adjacent the rim thereof, is suitably expanded to provide an external annular flange 8, with the rim material, beyond said flange 8, spun or otherwise turned inwardly to engage snugly in substantially sealing contact an annular flange 9 of the inserted lens I. The integral bottom IU of housing I is preferably curved to provide a seat for the rear convex mirrored surface 3 of said lens. In the slightly different unit of Fig. 3, the housing I has the same external flange 8 and the same spun-over rim engagement with the flange 9 of lens Ia, but the integral bottom ID of said housing in this case provides a seat for the reflection element 5. In the unit shown by Fig. 6, employing a lens Ib having an external bead or enlargement II, the housing I has to be somewhat longer; its annular flange 8 is spaced by the width of bead II from the spun-over rim 9' engaging the outer portion of said bead.

In all cases however, the housings cylindrical wall, inwardly of the projecting annular flange 8, has pressed or otherwise formed therein suitable corrugations IE in the form substantially of an external screw-thread-it being understood that this threaded portion of each housing is small enough in diameter to enter freely any of the apertures of the front plate or panel B, but that in every case the housing flange 8 provides a stop or abutment, larger in diameter than such aperture, for engagement with the outer or exposed face of panel B, to limit the inward movement of each unit in the act of assembling and mounting said units on said front panel. Such assembly and mounting, in a secure and tamperproof fashion, is obtained according to my invention by providing for cooperation with the threaded inner housing portion I2 of each unit a cuplike member I3, whose cylindrical wall is internally formed in any suitable manner with corrugations or threads corresponding to the external corrugations or threads I2 of said housing. This member I3 has its rim flanged outwardly, as shown at I4, to provide a stop or abutment for engagement with the inner face of panel B around the opening therein, in opposed relation to the engagement of the outer face of said panel B by the flange 8. This clamping opposition of the flanges 8 and I 4, by which to position and hold each unit in the apertured panel B, is obtained by screwing the internally threaded member I3 onto each reflector housing I or I, after insertion of same in the panel aperture. But in a sign having reflector units so assembled and held, not only can this screw-threaded engagement become loosened by vibration, but also, despite the fact that the space C containing the several members I3, I3 is rendered entirely inaccessible by the attachment of the back plate A, it is still possible for any malicious person, by manipulation of the exposed portions of the reflector units at the front of the sign, to unscrew such units from their retaining members I3, I3.

According to my invention, these difliculties are overcome by the employment of means arranged to prevent any relative turning movement in an unscrewing direction between the housing 'I or 1' and the retaining members I3, I3 thereof. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the space between the bottom IU of housing I and the bottom of member I3 is arranged to receive a resilient member I5, here shown in the form of a split or helical lock washer. The latter is so proportioned as to be put under considerable pressure by the contraction of such space incident to screwing on of member I3 far enough to engage its flange I4 with the inner surface of panel B; consequently, by reason of the very heavy friction obtained by this compression of member I5, (be it look washer, or spring, as shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4 and '7 or rubber washer) as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, it is impossible to produce by turning movement imparted to the exposed portion of a unit at the front of the sign any relative rotation in an unscrewing direction between said units housing and the screwed-on member I3; instead, if any such turning can be made to take place, the member i3, by reason of such increased friction, will invariably turn in unison with the button housing I. The resilient member I5 can be made with a large enough diameter to have a snug fit with the interior of member I3, thus avoiding separation of the two parts in ordinary handling. Or if desired, as shown in Figs. '7 and 8, the bottom of cup member I3 may have struck up from same a bendable retaining tongue I6, folded back on the resilient member I5 to hold the latter in place within said cup member. It is of advantage also to roughen the opposed bottom surfaces of housing I and cup member I3, as shown at 20, Figs. 5 and 6, in the areas thereof engaged by the interposed resilient member I5.

Instead of using a separate resilient member I5, the cup member I3 itself may be made of material suitable for tempering, and the bottom of this member, may be formed with struck-up integral prongs II, II, adapted when the member is screwed up tight, to bite into the softer metal of the casing 7; this construction is illustrated in Fig. 4.

I claim:

1. In a reflecting sign construction, a panel having button-receiving apertures, reflector buttons each insertible in one of said apertures, each button comprising a casing for a lens and a reflecting surface, said casing being flanged at its front portion to engage the front side of the panel around the associated aperture and threaded at its rear portion projecting through said aperture, an internally threaded member cooperating with said threaded casing portion to hold each button in said panel, said member being flanged at its rim to engage the rear side of the panel around the associated aperture and a resilient device adapted to be compressed between said member and said casing when the flanged portions are in clamping engagement with opposite sides of said panel.

2. A two-piece reflector button mounting adapted to cooperate with a panel provided with a button-receiving aperture, said mounting comprising an inner shell containing a lens and a reflecting surface and formed with threads and an outwardly projecting rim, an outer shell formed with cooperating threads and a rim, said outwardly projecting rim adapted to limit the rearward movement of said inner shell through said aperture, the rim of said outer shell adapted to limit the forward movement of said mounting through said aperture when said outer shell is screwed onto said inner shell and spring means adapted to engage frictionally with both of said shells when their rims are in clamping engagement with the panel, thereby to resist rotation which would screw said outer shell off said inner shell.

3. In a sign, the combination with a plate provided with an aperture, of a light-reflecting element and a holder for same comprising two bodies having screw threaded engagement with! each other, said bodies having clamping abutments on opposite sides, respectively, of said plate about said aperture, spring means adapted to be compressed by said bodies and to permit free relative rotation between them only in the direction which would screw said abutments into clamping engagement with said plate.

4. In a sign, the combination with a lightreflecting element, said element comprising a light-transmitting lens and a reflector associated with and disposed behind said lens, of a mounting for said element comprising two bodies, one of which has an inwardly directed seat for said reflector, said bodies having screw-threaded engagement with each other and having outwardly directed clamping abutments, a plate provided with an aperture whose margin is clamped between said abutments and spring means adapted to be compressed by said bodies and to resist rotation which would release said compression.

5. In a sign, a light-reflecting element and a mounting for said element, said element comprising a light-transmitting lens and a reflector associated with and disposed behind said lens, said mounting comprising two bodies one of which has a seat for said reflector, said bodies having screw-threaded engagement with each other and having clamping abutments, a plate provided with an aperture whose margin is clamped between said abutments and spring means adapted to be compressed by said bodies and to permit free rotation of said bodies in only one direction.

6. In a sign, the combination with light-reflecting means comprising a lens and a reflecting surface, of a mounting for said reflecting means, comprising two bodies, one of which provides the inclosure for said light reflecting means, said bodies having screw-threaded engagement with each other and having outwardly directed clamping abutments, a plate provided with an aperture whose margin is clamped between said abutments and a spring adapted to be compressed by said bodies and to resist rotation which would release said compression.

'7. In a sign, a light reflecting means and a mounting therefor, said light reflecting means comprising a lens and a reflecting surface, and said mounting comprising two bodies, one of which encases said light-reflecting means, said bodies having screw-threaded engagement with each other and having clamping abutments, a plate provided with an aperture whose margin is clamped between said abutments and compressible means interposed between said bodies and put under compression by the relative movement between them which disposes their abutments in clamping relation to said plate.

8. In a sign, a light reflecting means and a mounting therefor, said light reflecting means comprising a lens and a reflecting surface, said mounting comprising two bodies, one of which encases said light-reflecting means, said bodies having screw-threaded engagement with each other and having clamping abutments, a plate provided with an aperture whose margin is clamped between said abutments and compressible means interposed between said bodies and put under compression by the relative movement between them which disposes their abutments in clamping relation to said plate, the surfaces of said bodies being roughened in the areas thereof contacted by said interposed compressible means.

9. In a sign, the combination with light-refleeting means comprising a lens and a reflecting surface, of a mounting for said reflecting means, comprising two bodies, one of which provides the inclosure for said light reflecting means, said bodies having screw-threaded engagement with each other and having outwardly directed clamping abutments, a plate provided with an aperture whose margin is clamped between said abutments, a spring adapted to be compressed by said bodies and to resist rotation which would release said compression and means integral with one of said bodies for preventing separation of said spring from said body.

CHARLES A. PERSONS. 

